New Orleans, LA - July 22, 2013 (Investorideas.com Water Stocks Newswire) Yesterday, the judge in the Apalachicola Riverkeeper v. Taylor Energy Co. LLC Clean Water Act suit issued an order denying most of Taylor Energy’s Motion to Dismiss and denied Taylor ’s Motion to Stay in the Waterkeeper Alliance lawsuit to stop Taylor 's oil discharges into the Gulf of Mexico.

Three claims by the Waterkeeper Alliance plaintiffs said that 1) Taylor violates the Clean Water Act by discharging oil without a Clean Water Act permit, 2) if Taylor somehow has a Clean Water Act permit, Taylor is violating that permit; and 3) by discharging oil into the Gulf, Taylor is disposing of waste and causing or contributing to a situation that may pose an imminent hazard to the public or the environment. The Judge dismissed the second claim because Taylor has now admitted that it has no Clean Water Act permit for discharge of oil. Aside from that, Taylor has lost its motion and Waterkeeper Alliance will move forward with the lawsuit.

"This lawsuit is necessary because of Taylor ’s slow pace in stopping the flow of oil from its wells into the Gulf. To the best of the Waterkeepers’ knowledge, this contamination has continued for nearly nine years," said Marc Yaggi, Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance. "This lawsuit is also needed because of the secrecy surrounding Taylor ’s response to a multi-year spill that threatens public resources. BP took five months to kill the Deepwater Horizon well to the outrage of the Nation. In this case, Taylor ’s leak has been ongoing for more almost nine years."

An underground mudslide began this spill on about September 15, 2004, by destroying a Taylor drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and burying up to 28 wells. Without details about Taylor ’s response to this crisis, it is impossible for members of the public to assess the risk that similar events will cause additional multi-year spills, including spills from higher-pressure wells in deeper water. Because such spills may damage the Gulf’s eco-system on a scale comparable to or exceeding that of the BP spill, it is essential that the public learn from the more than 7-year Taylor response.

Waterkeeper Alliance is the fastest growing global environmental movement uniting more than 200 Waterkeeper organizations around the world and focusing citizen advocacy on the issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change. Waterkeepers patrol more than 1.5 million square miles of rivers, streams and coastlines on six continents. www.waterkeeper.org @waterkeeper